07 July 2006

My Cycling Pal at Russian Ridge

Russian Ridge is located on Highway 35, near Palo Alto. It's a great place for beginning mountain biking, as the trails are wider, smoother, gradually-sloped and less technical than other preserves along Hwy 35 which are governed by the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District - MROSD.

MROSD does a great job of maintaining multi-use trails for cyclists, hikers, and equestrians. Without fail, the trail intersections have steel or wood signage with mileage and trail names. Russian Ridge connects with Skyline Ridge, another easy, but smaller, trail network.

Cycling along, exploring some territory new to me. For whatever reason, I was compelled to look upward to the top of the hill. Good thing. I clicked off one photo and he escaped.

Later, I saw this guy.

There's a 12-mile ride with a docent from MROSD at Russian Ridge planned for August 26th from 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. Recommended as a way to get acquainted with the territory. Don't let my pix of coyotes freak you out. They run away and don't get close to humans...